Monday, 14 November 2016

Devotional Tuesday 15/11/16 – John 17:17 “Sanctify them…”

21:16 Posted by Matthew Beaney No comments

God loves us too much, and so committed to His own glory, that He is devoted to our sanctification…
To meditate/pray upon
John 17:17 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
Philippians 2:12-13 ‘Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.’
What is sanctification?
It means ‘to make holy’ – to become more like Jesus.
Wayne Grudem summarised sanctification as,
‘Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.’
Sanctification is the gift of God – it is He that is working in us; but it is a gift that we have to receive by active participation. God sanctifies us in various ways:
·      The bible and teaching – As we read, are taught and apply the bible
·      Christian fellowship – The church community helps us to grow
·      Worship and prayer – as we spend time with God, He transforms us
·      Experience – God uses the experiences of our lives to train us
It’s vitally important to embrace the idea that God wants you to be more holy; He is not happy to leave us in our sin and immaturity.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
How are you doing in this?
Take a moment to express your desire to be more holy, no areas out of bounds!
Maybe use the words of Psalm 19 as a guide to prayer,
Psalm 19:14 ‘May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.’
You can catch up on all the messages in the John series at:

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